Our Christmas special to our cruisers - all 6 novels in a Kindle Box set for the price of two. That's a deal we fought to get.
Cozy mystery thrillers with private detectives have always scored well as novels and as TV shows. From Columbo, through the gentle Midsomer Murders to the increased octane shows like Law and Order. To find a show on your doorstep is always exciting, especially if without the inconvenience of trucks parked in your street and film crews in your house for years and years as a show hits season after season.
Cruise mysteries are based around crimes that need to be solved, but as crime is rare on any ship then it has to be special. These are big crimes, not just the go-to murder, but drug smuggling, people smuggling, and criminals themselves trying to move country undetected, which, is how it all starts. All 6 books in one box set deal.
CRUISE SHIP HEIST
Commander Kieron Philips first civilian job is to commentate on the Panama Canal transit and be in uniform at a commemoration service on a cruise ship his sponsored refugee has grown to become a dancer on. Now a civilian, Kieron's quasi-adopted daughter wants him to find romance but his highly tuned instincts sense serious trouble. Money appears and people go missing as the ship sails between South American ports. With no protective kit, no backup and not armed he avoids ruthless gang appointed assassins on the ship, looking for money he should not have to guard. Worse still, after a career serving his country with no family to make him vulnerable, he has skin in the game; Auli'i, who now calls him dad. Nothing is worth putting her at risk but as the deathly game escalates, he figures his presence is more than a coincidence. But how? She arranged his visit.
Ports in which action takes place in the novel - Panama.
CRUISE SHIP SERIA KILLER
Hunter and Witowski have just started their Miami based cruise crime investigation unit when the three guests are killed on a cruise ship that is out of helicopter assistance range. The Panama to Tahiti crossing is all ocean. Eleven lonely, isolated days of romance at sea that can bleed no more. They board a long-range coast guard plane for a night jump into the Pacific as near to the ship as is possible. Another body is found before they change clothes, and another murder happens each night. The ship's security officer Ruby Jenkins soon develops ideas a taste to join what she sees as a more exciting future, but it is Prisha from data wrangling in the ship’s office who is seconded to help CSCI. If they can stay alive long enough to find the killer.
CRUISE SHIP LAUNDRY WARS
When asked to investigate a simple problem at sea, Hunter avoids too much information. He has a newborn baby at home and knows cruise operators never call CSCI for simple. Still recovering from an almost fatal head injury, his partner Kieron must leave the beach-front Caribbean villa he bought with Georgie. They had a strange fling, thrown together by discovered millions they had to spend then and there, as Keiron solved the heist that launched CSCI. Her partner, ex KGB agent Bedrîska is living there with Georgie but leaves with Kieron to be his undercover wife as he goes from one awkward triangle to the one three ships repeat in the Mediterranean. Bedi and Kieron discover the ships are picking up women in the Adriatic and selling them against their will on the Spanish coast, in trade the mafia has no intention of losing. Has Bedriska got Kieron's back or is he what she needs to settle?
CRUISE SHIP ART THEFT
Art is being systematically stolen from the collection on the most luxurious cruise ship at sea. The collective value is way beyond the sum people kill for. CSCI is approached to work invisibly because unlike INTERPOL or any other international crime unit, art police, valuers, insurance investigators, or experts, they are unknown to the thieves. They must remain unseen or the crime will stop, the thieves will vanish and the art lost for good. The ace CSCI play is their intern Macey who can be on the ship as the star guest. It is an opportunity that can make this young unknown artist a star. It is exploitation that puts her at risk, but it is a chance her talent deserves; a chance a girl from the Miami projects never gets to have. All she has to do is survive and make it work.
DISASTROUS (COVID 19) CRUISE ROMANCE
Romance can be harsh, it can be violent, it can be a crime. Violet has never had the chance of romance, nor has she experienced life and time is running out. As the world comes out of a major virus lockdown the media's resurgence for life sells her the need to venture out before it is too late. Her care-at-home medical team disagree but before she can be interned again for her own safety, she takes a cruise and vanishes without a trace. Now she is not only a danger to herself, but to others.
Possessing refined skills cunning, wit and acting that were essential to survive a lifetime of institutionalisation, she uses her charm on the ship's crew and guests.
Georgie, head of entertainment senses the problem early on after an unfortunate incident where she overstepped. Rather than admit the incident to her superior officer, the hotel manager, she shares her worry with her partner, Bedriska. The Russian is still in lockdown in Miami where she works for CSCI, from where she tells Georgie to involve Kieron who is on her ship as the guest speaker. He is taking a long look at life and more rehabilitation time as his head injury continues to prove a problem, but the relationship between him and Georgie is frosty as that triangle becomes evermore complicated.
CSCI honours her wishes and doesn't involve the ex-special services man who has been single all his life. They start to investigate Violet from Miami and find the woman is dangerous. Very dangerous. By the time Kieron finds out, it is too late, he and Violet are friends.
(Cruise ship) BLOOD DIAMONDS
A storeroom gem safe on the cruise ship MS Aerwyna is open and a whistleblower reports it on a tip line. It is the third out-off-service ship, anchored in international waters off the Bahamas, to be refitted. If the heist involves each of the anchored three ships, it is well-organised crime with a purse large enough to kill for.
By the afternoon, Cruise Ship Crime Investigators CSCI are onboard under a cover of system testers. The mastermind and digital expert required to break into the cruise operator’s main system, produce movement orders, and open doors, maybe remotely working from anywhere. However, at least one from the gang must be on board the ship to open the mechanical lock and physically carry the bounty away. Whilst false COVID test results are used to immediately lock the ship down, CSCI know time is limited before the trapped bandits realise the crime has been discovered and they need to escape.
Our page on cruise insurance & antigen testing: click> INSURANCE & TESTING
CHAT GROUPS - a fantastic way to help others and a place to find answers. We run a Facebook Group for each of the ships. For example, P&O IONA group P&O Ventura MARELLA EXPLORER Disney & Family cruise chatSAGA Ocean & River cruise chat group Viking Ocean & River Cruising chatCunard Chat - Premium cruise liners Find the complete list of chat groups here
